LOVE GAME VIDEO BANNED FROM AUS TV
4/7/09 // 10:26 AM
SOURCERACY pop star Lady Gaga is too sexy for Australian TV censors, with her clip for Love Game banned for "frequent verbal and visual sexual references".
The song, at No.18 in Australia this week, repeats the sexual euphemism "I wanna take a ride on your disco stick'' multiple times.
Channel 10's in-house censors have given Love Game an M rating; clips must be rated either G or PG to appear on Video Hits, reports The Herald Sun.
"It's pretty rare we get a pop clip that's sexual to the point there's almost no way we can edit it without destroying the original intent of the video,'' Video Hits producer Ben Fletcher said yesterday.
Ten's censors objected to the lyrics "heavy touching'', "I'm educated in sex'' and "I want it bad'' as well as Gaga's "sexual postures'' in her dance moves, a near-naked outfit and her male dancer's "fetish-like costumes''.
"It's not just the lyrics and the visuals, if you were to judge it just upon either of those it might not be so bad,'' Fletcher said.
"It's the cumulative impact of all those things together. We have been advised it would be very difficult to edit it down to PG, so we have made the call not to play it.''
However the program still airs suggestive videos by scantily-clad artists like Pussycat Dolls and Britney Spears.
Australia is the first country to release Love Game as a single, so the video - directed by the respected Joseph Kahn - has yet to hit any censorship problems overseas.
Australia was the first territory to give Lady Gaga a No.1 hit with Just Dance last year.
That video was rated G, however follow ups Poker Face and Eh Eh have been PG rated, with Gaga sporting increasingly risque outfits.
"If you look at her clips there's definitely an increase of sexual suggestiveness and visually there's things like fetish wear,'' Fletcher said.
"That's why radio stations can play these songs and we can't. There's definitely a visual element to it which changes things.''
Gaga's Australian record label have contacted the star to see if she will approve heavy editing for a PG rating.
The references to "disco stick'' and several sexually-charged scenes will need to be removed.
"Those kind of artists like to push the envelope and it works,'' Fletcher said, "but they also like their videos to be played.
"We haven't banned it, we would be playing it if we were provided with a clip we were able to play in this timeslot.''
The video is airing on ABC's Rage and also cable music channels V and MTV as they are regulated by different codes of practice than commercial TV networks.
Video Hits often edit videos to fit their G or PG timeslots.
Removal of nude scenes from Britney Spears' Womanizer and images of domestic violence from Pink's Please Don't Leave Me have turned both videos from M rated to PG.
"We prefer not to edit things where possible, but if the song's big enough and popular enough we will undertake slight edits,'' Fletcher said.
"It's usually an issue of swearing or sexual behaviour on screen.
"Sometimes it gets to the point where it's too difficult and it ruins the tone of the song and the clip.''
However the lines are blurred. Video Hits showed Jessica Simpson washing a car in a bikini during her These Boots Are Made for Walking video.
Rapper 50 Cent - who had a song called Magic Stick - had his Candy Shop video aired on Video Hits despite lyrical euphemism "I'll let you lick the lollypop'' and lyrics "give it to me baby, nice and slow, climb on top, ride like you in the rodeo.''
The Black Eyed Peas' My Humps was the last song Video Hits axed due to lyrical and visual suggestiveness.
